1-1 By: Shapleigh S.B. No. 851
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 3, 1999; March 8, 1999, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
1-4 April 15, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
1-5 Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 3, Nays 0; April 15, 1999,
1-6 sent to printer.)
1-7 COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 851 By: Wentworth
1-8 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-9 AN ACT
1-10 relating to an application for issuance of a subpoena.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
1-13 amended by adding Section 30.011 to read as follows:
1-14 Sec. 30.011. ELECTRONIC SUBPOENA APPLICATION. In addition
1-15 to any other procedure permitted under state law or by court rule,
1-16 an application for issuance of a subpoena may be made by electronic
1-17 means.
1-18 SECTION 2. Subsection (a), Article 24.03, Code of Criminal
1-19 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-20 (a) Before the clerk or his deputy shall be required or
1-21 permitted to issue a subpoena in any felony case pending in any
1-22 district or criminal district court of this State of which he is
1-23 clerk or deputy, the defendant or his attorney or the State's
1-24 attorney shall make an [written, sworn] application in writing or
1-25 by electronic means to such clerk for each witness desired. Such
1-26 application shall state the name of each witness desired, the
1-27 location and vocation, if known, and that the testimony of said
1-28 witness is material to the State or to the defense. The
1-29 application must be filed with the clerk [and placed with the
1-30 papers in the cause] and made available to both the State and the
1-31 defendant. Except as provided by Subsection (b) [of this article],
1-32 as far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
1-33 names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
1-34 process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
1-35 for the defendant. When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
1-36 attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
1-37 particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
1-38 benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
1-39 opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
1-40 case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
1-41 subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
1-42 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-43 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-44 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-45 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-46 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-47 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-48 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-49 * * * * *